The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has reduced the four-year period of ineligibility of Romanian tennis player Simona Halep to nine months, the CAS announced on Tuesday.

Simona Halep of Romania returns the ball during the first round of women's singles match between Donna Vekic of Croatia and Simona Halep of Romania at the 2022 National Bank Open in Toronto, Canada, on Aug. 8, 2022. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua)

The CAS held a three-day hearing with Halep and witnesses on February 7-9 in Lausanne, Switzerland, and unanimously determined that the four-year period of ineligibility imposed by the Independent Tribunal of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) is to be reduced to nine months starting on October 7, 2022 and the period expired on July 6, 2023.

"As that period expired before the appeal procedures were even lodged with the CAS, the CAS Panel has determined it appropriate to issue the operative part of the Arbitral Award as soon as practicable, together with a comprehensive media release," the CAS announced.

The CAS Panel upheld the appeal filed by Halep partially and also ordered the disqualification of all competitive results achieved by Halep from August 29, 2022 (the date of her positive sample) to October 7, 2022.